Boy Who Received New Heart Makes A Christmas Wish

For Thanksgiving, he woke up with a healthy new heart, and for Christmas, 14-year-old Sean McCallum of Wheaton wants to sit in front of the family Christmas tree with his dog, Wicket, on his lap.

``I`ve learned to appreciate so many things, like school, my friends, a McDonald`s fish filet,`` Sean said Wednesday from his hospital bed in the intensive care unit at Children`s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where he has been since August.

``I`m praying to be home for Christmas, and the doctors say that is a realistic goal,`` he said. ``It will be the greatest feeling to be there and to have Wicket sit in my lap, with my parents and my sister, Erin, all by the tree. I can`t wait.``

Last spring, Sean, an aspiring gymnast looking toward his freshman year at Wheaton North High School, was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, a disease that attacks the heart muscle and affects its ability to pump blood.

Doctors told Sean he had about a year to get a new heart. Beginning in August, he waited for one at the hospital.

And on Nov. 26, a suitable heart was found from a donor in northwest Indiana and placed inside Sean in a seven-hour operation.

On Wednesday, barely a week later, Sean was sitting in his hospital room, playing Nintendo, while the hospital staff and the transplant surgeon, Dr. Constantine Mavroudis, used the words ``great,`` ``excellent`` and ``healthy`` to describe their patient.

``My future limitations are up to me, the doctors say, and that means the entire world is up to me,`` said Sean, who will have to take medication and have regular checkups the rest of his life.

Sean was the subject of several fundraising projects in the Wheaton area. More than $50,000 has been collected and earmarked to help pay for the operation and future treatment.

The fundraising events included bowlathons, walkathons, runathons, an auction of donated sports celebrity memorabilia and school fundraisers. At Franklin Middle School, pupils collected $600 from people who wanted to kiss a pig.

``Of course I would kiss a pig for my friends,`` Sean said Wednesday. ``I can`t say how much those friendships have meant. It has kept my attitude always up.``

``Sean`s taken all of this better than we did,`` said his mother, Valerie. ``We can`t believe all of this worked out and how good he looks.``

Sean`s freshman year has consisted of regular visits from a Wheaton North tutor, private art lessons from the Du Page Art League (which has displayed one of his drawings) and dreaming about his plans to be on the gymnastics team.

``There is nothing saying I can`t do that in the future. I will just have to wait and see,`` he said.

Sean looks forward to getting out of the hospital, but ``I will miss the nurses and on Sunday, the Bear games. We often had 16 people or so, my friends and some people from the hospital, watch the game in my room, and we would order pizza and my fish filet.``

Sean was the 31st youngster to get a new heart at Children`s Memorial, one of the few hospitals in the Midwest that performs transplants in children. He has taken several walks and hopes to be out of the intensive care unit by this weekend. He may be able to start attending classes in February.

Although Sean and his family know the donor heart came from Indiana, they know nothing about the person who provided it.

``Before all this happened, I had thought about being an artist, and I still want to be one. But now I have been through the greatest learning experience ever,`` Sean said. ``The more I think about it, I have to be able to help people in the same situation.